Lee Child - Personal

[grand cherokee]

the latest Jack Reacher novel - save your money and do not buy

really poor plot and drifts in all directions

think Lee Child has run out of original ideas but needs to produce a new novel every few months?

also he's a Brit but writes for the US market (lives in US) - annoys me to fk, driving a 'sedan' in London and all the other 'US words' that are totally out of context

also a top sniper today would use the 0.338 Lapua - the Barrett 0.50 is so old school

[truck71]

Lee Child has made a very successful career from writing unimaginative dross for years. Easy reading and not a total waste of pastime but nothing special or challenging whatsoever. Buy for a couple of quid from your local Oxfam, not Waterstones.

[Pie with sauce]

If he's be writing dross for years, why do you continue buying and reading them?

[BertBert]

because it's excellent simple formula material. Just easy reading. Don't over analyse or even analyse at all. The plots are quite clever premises and then JR acts according to type. I doubt that Childs can write a bad one as it's so formulaic.
Bert

[K50 DEL]

Glad it's not just me that thinks Personal drifts all over the place, I found it really hard to read, in fact I think it's the first Lee Child in years that I haven't read in one sitting.

I reckon Lee's out of ideas, perhaps time to kill Reacher off and move on?

[Pie with sauce]

Still love all the Reacher books, buy them as soon as they're published.

Quite enjoying Lee Child's little "insider" digs at David Baldacci.

Baldacci's (newish) hero, John Puller (Puller, Reacher... Lee Child said that the name came from seeing a supermarket employee reaching for something on a top shelf, perhaps Baldacci noticed a supermarket employee pulling something off a top shelf?) The fact that they were both ex-Military Police and now out of the service was purely coincidental.

One of the characters in the Reacher novel A Wanted Man is a meathead cop named, Puller. Lee Child obviously enjoys how inept this chap is.

In Never Go Back, Jack Reacher steals a wallet from, yes, a baddy named David Baldacci, and takes great delight in paying for everything over the next 24 hours from the wad of cash and the credit cards therein.

I love both authors and I've got both Personal and The Escape, to read over the Christmas break.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

I still think Killing Floor is an absolutely brilliant book. The rest? Pretty much down hill from that really I'm afraid to say.

[marcosgt]

K50 DEL said:

Glad it's not just me that thinks Personal drifts all over the place, I found it really hard to read, in fact I think it's the first Lee Child in years that I haven't read in one sitting.

I reckon Lee's out of ideas, perhaps time to kill Reacher off and move on?

As he doesn't release them in chronological order, I guess killing him would be a moot point

Some are definitely better than others. I'm reading one at the moment from when he was still an MP and it's probably the one I've enjoyed the most so far, so perhaps he should write more set back then (does he ever explain how an officer in the MPs comes to possess so many Special Forces skills?)?

That said, I buy most of mine in the local charity shop!

M

[Cardiff_Exile]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

I still think Killing Floor is an absolutely brilliant book. The rest? Pretty much down hill from that really I'm afraid to say.

Pretty much this, I really had to force myself to carry on reading personal and i was really surprised at the cliched view of England esp as Child is one of our own.

I've enjoyed many of David Baldacci's books especially the Camel Club series. All good books to kill time

[J4CKO]

I am really bored of them, cant remember the last one but abandoned it after about a twenty pages, the plot is the same each time and basically is an episode of the old Dog based programme "The Littlest Hobo".

The formula never changes, just the other characters and the location, its like its for kids, it remind me of watching "Bod" as a kid and getting excited to see what milkshake Alberto the Frog would choose at the end.

[LordGrover]

Not read Personal yet but read the rest. All good fun.
Have you tried The Monkey's Raincoat or any other Cole/Pike books?

[droopsnoot]

All the Cole/Pike books are very good. I've just read one, Chasing Darkness - and in trying to find out what it was called it seems I've missed a few so will have to find them.

I read 'Personal' and enjoyed it, but from what I recall it did seem to be a short story padded out into a novel - a lot of time spent explaining things that are different over here in more detail just to take some space up.

[alfa phil]

Read most of Lee Childs books, nearly finished Personal, a bit of a change being set in London for most parts, but its starting to mystify me now how he can take three gorillas out in two mins flat,with such ease ,isn't he getting on a bit now, I suppose every thing has a shelf life, did get bought this hardback copy for Christmas ,usually look out for them in the charity shops.

[JJ55]

I agree this wasn't one of his better books

[Welshbeef]

I'm half way through the JR series.

Easy reading Yes
Good plots Yes
Multilayered Very basic
Will I read all of them and pick up a new one each year? Yes.


Jo Nesbo for comparison is in an utterly different league deeply layered and keeps you guessing all the way. Easy reading they are not though.